The Summit was a first milestone in the debate on the future of Europe as laid out in President Juncker's Roadmap for a more United, Stronger and more Democratic Union, as well as the first stop on the road to the meeting of EU Leaders in Sibiu on 9 May 2019.

Calls for greater openness and transparency are exerting increasing pressure on the government to transform its traditional reactive information dissemination methods into a mode that facilitates proactive disclosure.

Clearly, in such circumstances, "burden shifting" by the US would be extremely unfair and strongly opposed, as the US Administration could have recourse to a much more appropriate approach.

CONSUMER EDUCATION AND INFORMATION - COUNCIL RESOLUTION [1] "THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community; Having regard to the Council Resolution of 9 June 1986 on "Consumer Education in primary and secondary schools"; Having regard to the Council Resolution of 23 June 1986 on "Future orientations of the policy of the European Economic Community for the protection and the promotion of the consumers' interests"; Whereas Article 3(s) of the Treaty stipulates that the activities of the Community shall include a contribution to the strengthening of consumer protection; Whereas, pursuant to Article 129a (1)(b) of the Treaty, the Community is to contribute to the attainment of a high level ...[+++] of consumer protection through specific action which supports and supplements the policy pursued by the Member States to protect the health, safety and economic interests of consumers and to provide adequate information to consumers; Whereas the Second Commission Three Year Action Plan "Placing the single market at the service of the European consumers" (1993-1995) emphasized that it is essential that the advent and the deepening of the large European market make itself felt in consumers' everyday life in the shape of tangible benefits; Whereas the Commission's Strategic Programme and its Communication on "Making the most of the Internal Market" emphasizes that the consumer has a critical role to play in the successful implementation of the Internal Market Programme since it will not operate properly without strong and effective consumer participation, and also that well-informed consumers exercising market choices can accelerate the positive economic effects of an integrated market; Whereas information measures designed to assist consumers to make soundly-based market choices will be more effective if consumers have the background knowledge and appropriate skills necessary to understand such information and to incorporate it ...

On the AM, the Commission's inquiries show that upon completion of the transaction, - Mannesmann/Boge will achieve a significant share of this market, but will become only second to Monroe which remains the leading company within the Community and with a particularly strong position in several national market segments such as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Portugal. - In addition, as in the OEM/OES market, there are several comparable competitors on the AM within the Community, (including Arvin Industries, Kayaba, Way Assauto and Koni) as well as a number of smaller players which currently market either speciality products (e.g. Bilstein) or mainly operate in smaller national or regional market segments (e.g. Lipmesa); - due to th ...[+++]e fact that suppliers of replacement parts achieve higher profits in the AM, the suppliers have a strong interest in keeping the free replacement and service market (i.e. independent replacement dealers and repair services) competitive with the authorised and franchised dealers and garagists.

Only a more competitive and more cohesive Community, and hence a stronger Community, can truly play its international role in Europe and in the rest of the world.